News

Richmond and Zetland Harriers had nineteen runners compete in the opening fixture of the Harrogate Road Race League at Ilkley on St George's Day and enjoyed their best start for some years.

Despite the absence of half their top ten, RZH had five in the first sixteen and headed the eventual winners at that stage. Harrogate's victory in the Open Team race and Alan Stimpson's win over Ian Fisher of Otley might have taken the headlines but Jon Orange's powerful finish took him to third place and, backed-up by Eric Williams in fifth (and first Vet) and Karl Povey in twelfth place, helped the Club into second place. Harrogate also lead the Men's Vet Teams with the Harriers in second place.

Home Club Ilkley are leading both the Ladies and Lady Vets teams although Carol Humphrey was first ahead of Rachel Robinson of RZH and Jean Uniacke of Ilkley was first Lady Vet.

Otley's grip on the main prize may have loosened but they are still the team to beat for the Elite Team Trophy. They were winners on the night by the slenderest of margins; the cumulative time of their first three finishers was 77:52, Harrogate were just 5 seconds behind and the Harriers were third in 79:29.

RZH Results, with times where known: 3^rd Jon Orange 26:03, 5^th Eric Williams 26:19, 12^th Karl Povey 27:07, 15^th Shaun Purkiss 27:20, 16^th Dave Cardus 27:22, 31^st Dan Brooks 28:49, 35^th Ian Scott 29:05, 52^nd Tony Colmer, 57^th Gary Bastow, 60^th Jim Robinson, 65^th Brian "Taff" Rogers, 66^th Rachel Robinson, 72^nd Mike Brooks 31:15, 114^th Ian Hepworth, 135^th Martin Carter, 164^th Wally Kinchin, 168^th Andy Whiteley, 203^rd Judith Fowden and 218^th Shirley Mathurin 45:16.

The second League fixture is hosted by Harrogate H&AC on Tuesday 7^th May, starting from Harlow Carr Gardens at 7.30pm.

In other athletic events last weekend; John Aspell ran in the National 12 Stage Road Relays at Sutton Park, Birmingham, James Wardman and Ken Harker competed in an Open T&F Meeting at Loughborough and four juniors competed in the Hallamshire Harriers Open at Sheffield. Matt Prosser was 10^th in the 200m for U17 boys in 24.6; Laura McAlhone was 4^th in the 200m for U17 girls in 27.6 and was 7^th in the 100m in 13.3; the Gray twins both competed in the U13 girls 800m with Jessica finishing 3^rd in 2:39.0, a PB by more than 2 seconds and Scarlett 12^th in 2:44.6 and Jessica then ran 32.0 in the 200m.

This weekend is the opening weekend for competition in the T&F Leagues: Saturday, the Senior Men start at Jarrow at 12 noon are in Division 4NE of the Northern Men's League; Sunday, the Ladies start at Clairville at 11 am in Division 2 North of the Northern Women's League and the Boys start at Wakefield at 1 pm in Division 1 North of the Young Athletes League.